The invention set forth in the specification pertains to new and improved spray structures having integral stakes.
For a number of years it has been known to form spray structures having stakes holding or supporting grooved nipples and deflection surfaces located generally opposite or adjacent to the ends of the grooves in such nipples. When the end of a water distribution tube is slipped upon such a nipple and water is supplied to the tubing water will pass through the groove in the nipple so as to be directed toward the deflection surface associated with it. Such spray structures ca be and are satisfactorily used in many different applications. Thus, they have been and are used in various different types of gardens and horticultural applications.
Surprisingly in some of such applications the spray structures of the invention can be considered as somewhat undesirable because of the manners in which the nipples in them are oriented. Most commonly such nipples are located so that as a stake is inserted in the ground the nipple is pointed in a vertical, upward direction but it is also known to have such nipples located so that they extend vertically downward as a stake is inserted in the ground.
Such upwardly extending nipples are considered disadvantageous because the water distribution tubes connected to them for a partial loop adjacent to the nipples as they traverse the distance between them and the ground or other common supports. This can be considered unsightly in some applications. It is also disadvantageous in that it creates an "unbalanced" situation which may tend to apply a force to a stake to cause it to tilt over, particularly in damp, somewhat plastic soil. If a tube is not tightly fitted on a nipple such a force may also tend to pull the tube off of the nipple.
The difficulty encountered with downwardly extending nipples is of a different nature. Gravity will tend to move a water distribution tube off of a downwardly extending nipple, particularly if the nipple and tube do not fit tightly together. At times even when such a tube and nipple fit tightly as they are installed they will subsequently fit loosely with respect to one another as a result of the tubing becoming somewhat soft and pliable as a consequence of being warmed by ambient air and the absorption of the sun's radiation.